Written Answers Friday 22 April 2005

Scottish Executive

Agriculture

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much, and what percentage of, agricultural (a) crop land, (b) pasture land and (c) range land has been lost due to urban development in each year for which figures are available, in total and broken down by region.

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much, and what percentage of, moorland has been lost due to urban development in each year for which figures are available, in total and broken down by region.

Ross Finnie: Available statistics on national net losses of agricultural land, by category of land use outwith agriculture, are published annually in table C13 of the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture , available on the Scottish Executive website:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/agri/ersa04-00.asp.

  No regional estimates are available.

Agriculture

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much, and what percentage of, agricultural land it estimates will be lost in each of the next five years.

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much, and what percentage of, moorlands it estimates will be lost in each of the next five years.

Ross Finnie: There are no official estimates of future losses of agricultural land. Available statistics on national net losses of agricultural land, by category of land use outwith agriculture, are published annually in Table C13 of the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture , available on the Scottish Executive website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/agri/ersa04-00.asp .

Agriculture

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the amount of crop land was per capita in each year for which figures are available, in total and broken down by region and what estimate it has made of the crop land per capita in each of the next five years.

Ross Finnie: Available national and regional statistics on agricultural land and the agricultural workforce are published annually in the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture and the Scottish Agricultural Census Summary Sheets by Geographic Area. These are available on the Scottish Executive website:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/agri/ersa04-00.asp and

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/15631/9620.

  No estimates of future land use or agricultural employment are available.

  Total population data for Scotland can be obtained from the General Register Office for Scotland. Results from the 2001 Census are available at: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files/01poprep.pdf.

  Population projections for Scotland are published on the General Register Office for Scotland website:

  http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/popproj/03population-projections.html.

Children’s Hearings

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have been referred to children’s hearings in each of the last six years as a result of their parents’ inability to care for them due to substance misuse.

Euan Robson: Children are referred to the Children’s Reporter on the basis of grounds contained within section 52 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, for example parental neglect, not on the factors which underlie the referral. Data on parental substance abuse is therefore not collated centrally.

  However, among other publications a Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) research report On the Right Track contains information on the characteristics of parents of children involved in the Fast Track hearings pilot (Bib. number 36165). Another SCRA Research report Social Backgrounds of Children Referred to the Reporter looked at the social background of 100 children’s files from Glasgow, Inverclyde and Aberdeenshire. That report found that within these files 39% demonstrated parental problem alcohol abuse, while 35% contained evidence of parental misuse of drugs. A copy of the report is available from the SCRA website: http://www.scra.gov.uk.

Common Agricultural Policy

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it has introduced to ensure that the Common Agricultural Policy assists in the development of organic farming.

Ross Finnie: The Organic Aid Scheme, which is an accompanying measure to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), encourages the development of organic farming. In 2004, the Scottish Executive increased the payment rates available to farmers under this scheme for converting to organic farming and extended the scheme to include payments to help farmers to maintain their organic farming systems after the initial five-year conversion period.

  The Single Farm Payment scheme will assist organic farmers by permitting organic crops to be grown on set-aside land without loss of premium; also organic farmers will benefit like other producers from the new flexibilities flowing from CAP reform. In addition, the new Land Management Contract Menu scheme has an express provision to support the costs of membership of organic schemes.

Community Care

Mr Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to help facilitate the establishment of a day care centre for Canisbay and Dunnet in Caithness.

Rhona Brankin: Local authorities have a duty under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 to assess the needs of, and provide appropriate services to, people in their area who appear to need them. They are responsible for arranging services to meet the needs of the population in their areas and for deciding how their resources should be spread out to best meet local needs and priorities.

  Ultimately it is for Highland Council to decide whether or not to help facilitate the establishment of a day care centre for Canisbay and Dunnet in Caithness.

  I understand that there is on-going discussion between Highland Council and the voluntary organisation that is committed to establishing the centre.

Cycling

Susan Deacon (Edinburgh East and Musselburgh) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many primary schoolchildren have completed the Cycling Scotland training programme, Ready Steady Bike.

Nicol Stephen: Cycling Scotland has distributed over 1,500 sets of its Ready Steady Bike course materials, including to school travel co-ordinators in each local authority. Cycling Scotland does not have a central record of the number of children who have been trained through use of the resource.

Environment

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Her Majesty’s Government regarding the designation of waters around Shetland and any changes to the designation.

Lewis Macdonald: Discussions have taken place with the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) officials in the past year with regard to designations of waters under the Urban Waste Water Treatment (91/271/EEC) and the Shellfish Waters (79/923/EEC) Directives . No changes to designations under 91/271/EEC are planned. A consultation on our proposals for further Scotland-wide designations under the Shellfish Waters Directive closed in January this year, and I will be announcing the outcomes of that process in the near future.

Family Mediation

Shiona Baird (North East Scotland) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive why funding to local mediation service providers has been discontinued under the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund.

Hugh Henry: No such action has been taken.

Ferry Services

Jim Mather (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what information is being made available to potential operators of the Gourock to Dunoon ferry route, including information on the berthing charges at Gourock Pier.

Jim Mather (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what process is in place to handle expressions of interest from ferry operators who are considering bidding for the Gourock to Dunoon ferry route.

Nicol Stephen: I have made clear that the proposals for the Gourock to Dunoon route will not be taken any further until the discussions with the European Commission on the need to tender the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services have been completed and I have reported back to the Scottish Parliament. If, following that process, a decision is made to resume the process of seeking an operator willing to run the service on a commercial basis, information packs, including details of berthing charges at Gourock Pier and other information relating to the operation of the service, will be made available to potential operators and they will be invited to submit their proposals.

Justice

Mr Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when the new computer system to replace the current criminal history system database, originally due for implementation in March 2004, will now be introduced; what the original estimated costs were and what the current estimated costs are for the system, and what additional functionality will be provided which was not in the original system specification.

Cathy Jamieson: The criminal history system (CHS) is the central record of people convicted of an offence in Scotland and forms an important part of the criminal justice system. It is used by the police and other law enforcement agencies and by the courts and other criminal justice partners in day to day operations and it supports Disclosure Scotland checks.

  The CHS replacement project is being undertaken by the Scottish Police Information Strategy (SPIS) working in liaison with the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) who maintain and house the database. Since the work was progressed in-house by SPIS a separate budget was not defined.

  The project was expected to be completed in March 2004. This was not achieved and some consultancy work was undertaken to examine the adequacy of the software and hardware supporting the replacement project. Although the output from these consultancy projects was reassuring, the replacement project continued to be delayed. In January 2005 and following a competitive tendering exercise, further consultancy was commissioned to develop a plan which identified key outputs and milestones for the successful delivery of the CHS replacement project including an informed assessment of the required human, financial and physical resources necessary to implement the plan. The consultancy report was delivered in April 2005.

  The consultants concluded that whilst a significant proportion of the required functionality of the current CHS system exists in the replacement system, too little attention has been paid to performance requirements and that this aspect of the project will be urgently addressed. The consultants recommend that roles and responsibilities of those involved in the project should be sharpened and that fresh project management would be beneficial.

  The consultants identified an early three to four month phase of work which includes mobilising new project management input, clarifying the specification for functional and performance requirements at the point at which the replacement system will become operational, and undertaking some performance testing. The output from this early phase of work will be a revised project initiation document. They estimate that there will then be around nine months work to deliver the first phase of the replacement project which will achieve a ‘like for like’ replacement for the current CHS system. In addition to existing SPIS and SCRO resources, the consultants estimate that around £1.3 million of additional resource will be required to achieve this.

  A further phase of work will then be required to improve the user interface, introduce enhancements to the database in line with demands from the police and wider criminal justice community, and to improve the technical architecture of the database. The consultants estimate that this will take in the order of a further 12 months and around £2 million.

  As a contingency plan and to guard against any risks with respect to performance specification, the consultants recommend that preparations are undertaken for a procurement exercise for a replacement criminal history system. The expectation is that this will be stood down once the revised project initiation document is developed.

  The Common Police Services Programme Board, which exercises strategic governance of SCRO and SPIS, considered the consultant’s report on 12 April 2005 and accepted the recommendations as set out above.

  Whilst it is disappointing that a project which was due to deliver in March 2004 will not deliver until March 2006, it is more important that we get this key project right than we get it quickly. In the interim, the current mainframe system is functioning effectively for users in the Scottish criminal justice community and it will continue to be used until we are satisfied that a replacement system is ready for service.

Justice

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) maximum and (b) minimum (i) fine and (ii) custodial sentence is that can be imposed for assaulting a police officer

Cathy Jamieson: Serious cases of assault on a police officer can be dealt with as common law offences and prosecuted under solemn procedure, whereby a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine can be imposed. There are no specified minimum sentences.

  There are also specific offences of assaulting a police officer in the Police (Scotland) Act 1967 and in the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005. These attract a maximum penalty of 9 months in custody and/or a level 5 fine (currently £5,000).

Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been detained under section 24 of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984 in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

Rhona Brankin: This information is not held centrally. However, the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland is notified of detentions under the 1984 act and may be able to provide some information in relation to this query. They may be contacted at:

  The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland

  K Floor

  Argyle House

  3 Lady Lawson Street

  Edinburgh

  EH3 9SH

  Telephone: 0131 222 6111.

Ministerial Costs

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was of ministerial receptions in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.

Mr Tom McCabe: It is only possible to provide centrally held information in relation to the cost of ministerial receptions. The centrally held information (which is the vast majority of information held on this subject) is set out in the following table.

  

Financial Year
£000


July 1999-2000
17


2000-01
75


2001-02
64


2002-03
55


2003-04
48


To Dec 2004
75*



  Note: *This included £13,000 for the reception for the opening of the new Scottish Parliament building.

Prisoner Escorts

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive why the prisoner escort and court custody services summary in respect of its prisoner escort contract with Reliance does not include figures for (a) prisoners injured whilst in custody, (b) assaults by prisoners in custody on (i) other prisoners, (ii) prison custody and security officers and (iii) others and (c) prisoners in custody found to be in possession of unauthorised items.

Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-8431 answered on 8 June 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Prisoner Escorts

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive why the prison escort and court custody services summary in respect of its prisoner escort contract with Reliance has not been updated since September 2004 and what time interval there is between the payment of Reliance for its services and the publication of the performance summary.

Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

  I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-8431 on 8 June 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

  The performance data to December 2005 have just been agreed and published on the SPS website.

Rail Network

Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the timescale is for the establishment of a rail service from Stirling to Motherwell.

Nicol Stephen: A group formed to take the scheme forward as part of the implementation of the Central Scotland Transport Corridor Studies is expected to provide a progress report this summer. This report will address all the issues affecting delivery of the scheme.

Registers of Scotland

Scott Barrie (Dunfermline West) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what targets it expects Registers of Scotland to achieve in 2005-06.

Johann Lamont: Scottish ministers have set Registers of Scotland the following key targets for 2005-06:

  Financial

  1. to achieve a return of 15% on net capital employed over the three-year period ending 31 March 2006.

  2. to improve efficiency by 2% when comparing three-year performance to 31 March 2006 against three-year performance to 31 March 2005 against the standard production cost index.

  Speed of Registration

  3. to achieve recording and registration turnaround times in 2005-06:

  averaging over the year as a whole no more than 15 working days for sasine writs;

  averaging over the year as a whole no more than 25 working days for dealings with whole;

  averaging over the year as a whole no more than 90 working days for domestic first registrations received over the last 12 months, and

  ("Dealings with whole" are registrations involving a property title that is already on the Land Register. "First Registrations" are where an entire property is registered on the Land Register for the first time either because it is new or as a result of a transaction transferring it from the Register of Sasines.)

  4. in line with the three-year target to eliminate stocks of domestic first registrations over one year old, to achieve a 62% stock reduction against the 31 March 2004 baseline by 31 March 2006;

  5. to eliminate all pre-July 2001 casework except where, for exceptional reasons, agreement has been reached with the agent or where court proceedings are pending;

  Registration Accuracy

  6. to achieve a registration accuracy rate of at least 98% for applications despatched during the previous 12 months.

  Customer Service

  7. to continue to operate at Charter Mark standards by:

  achieving a 98% rating for overall customer care in the annual customer satisfaction survey of solicitors, and convening six focus groups around the country to obtain details of issues of particular importance to the legal profession, and

  processing 97% of all customer enquiries in compliance with the agency’s published response standards.

Roads

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether all necessary properties have been compulsorily purchased to enable construction of the M74 Northern Extension to begin and, if not, how many properties are still to be purchased in this manner.

Nicol Stephen: No properties have been compulsorily acquired. Fifteen properties have been acquired on a voluntary basis. The Road Orders and Compulsory Purchase Order were made on 24 March 2005. The Compulsory Purchase Order enables the Scottish ministers to compulsory purchase the remaining properties and interests required for the scheme. There are around 220 plots in the Compulsory purchase order, although it is hoped that the majority of these will be acquired by agreement.

Roads

Dennis Canavan (Falkirk West) (Ind): To ask the Scottish Executive what the up-to-date position is regarding available funding, commencement date and completion date of the A8000 spur.

Nicol Stephen: Responsibility for taking this project forward is a matter for the City of Edinburgh Council, as the responsible roads authority. The Forth Estuary Transport Authority is to provide funding for the project. We are working closely with both authorities to ensure that funding is in place and work can begin as soon as possible.

Roads

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what total price it has paid, or is liable to pay, to Network Rail in respect of the M74 project for property and property interests which it (a) has acquired where the transactions have been completed (b) will acquire where transactions have not been completed.

Nicol Stephen: No property or interests have yet been acquired from Network Rail. The amount of compensation that will become due when title to the land is taken is not yet known.

Roads

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it paid in respect of purchase of land under the M74 Special Road (Fullarton Road to West of Kingston Bridge) Orders up to 23 March 2005.

Nicol Stephen: Total compensation paid for the purchase of land for the M74 completion scheme to 23 March 2005 was £40,345,215.

School Meals

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average price is of the ingredients used to make school meals in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in the (i) Highland Council, (ii) Argyll and Bute Council, (iii) Orkney Islands Council and (iv) Shetland Islands Council area.

Euan Robson: At present the Scottish Executive does not centrally collect data on the average price of ingredients used in Scottish school meals.

School Meals

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether transportation costs and the higher price of ingredients are taken into account when allocating funds to local authorities in remote island and rural areas for the provision of school meals.

Euan Robson: The costs of service provision to rural areas are taken into account within the local government settlement as a whole. In addition to several indicators distributing money to rural authorities within the settlement, island and rural authorities also receive a Special Islands Needs Allowance. However, transportation costs and the higher price of ingredients are not specifically taken into account when calculating the allocation of funds to local authorities for the provision of school meals.

Scottish Executive Consultation

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultation exercises it carried out in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.

Ms Margaret Curran: The overall number of consultations carried out by the Scottish Executive is as follows:

  

Year
Number of Consultations


1999
92 (since devolution)


2000
140


2001
164


2002
164


2003
161


2004
178

Scottish Executive Consultation

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost was of hosting and organising consultation events in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004, broken down into (i) cost of officials’ time expressed as a cash figure, (ii) cost of materials such as presentational aids and (iii) any other relevant costs.

Ms Margaret Curran: The information sought is not held centrally and such detailed information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Scottish Executive Staff

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many days it lost to stress-related illness compared to the Scottish average for public sector workers in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.

Mr Tom McCabe: The number of sick absence days reported by staff in the Scottish Executive since 1999 due to stress related illness is provided in the following table.

  There is no comparable data for the public sector held centrally. The Scottish Executive’s statistics related to the public sector are calculated using the Labour Force Survey, which is carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This survey does not include a specific question about the reasons for absence from work and therefore any information on stress related illness from the survey is not comparable.

  

Calendar Year
Total Sick Days due to Stress
Average Sick Days Per Person due to Stress


1999
2,462
0.6


2000
2,375
0.6


2001
2,102
0.5


2002
3,571
0.8


2003
3,264
0.7


2004
2,924
0.6

Scottish Executive Staff

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many days it lost through sickness compared with the Scottish average for public sector workers in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.

Mr Tom McCabe: The number of sick absence days in the Scottish Executive since 1999 is provided in table A. These figures represent the actual number of sickness absence days reported by staff.

  Table B provides information held by the Scottish Executive about sickness absence in the public sector. However, the information has not been compiled on a comparable basis as that for the Scottish Executive’s staff. The public sector sickness absence figure has been obtained from the Labour Force Survey, which is carried out by the Office for National Statistics. The survey is based on a one week period when respondents are asked to identify any days when they were absent from work due to illness. The number of sickness absence days is then aggregated up to a yearly total and divided by the number of employees to provide an average number of sickness absence days per employee. Statistics for the Scottish public sector are only available for the period 2001-03.

  Table A Sickness Absence – Scottish Executive

  

Calendar Year
Total Sick Days
Average Sick Days Per Person


1999
30,826
7.7


2000
29,036
7.1


2001
21,944
5.2


2002
36,581
8.3


2003
35,597
7.8


2004
35,418
7.7



  Table B Sickness Absence – Scottish Public Sector

  

Calendar Year
Total Sick Days Per Year
Average Sick Days Per Employee Per Year


2001
2,758,000
4.3


2002
2,368,000
3.6


2003
3,381,000
5.1

Scottish Executive Staff

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its employees in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004 previously worked for the Scottish Office.

Mr Tom McCabe: The following table shows the number of permanent staff in Scottish Executive core departments in each of the years 1999 to 2004, who previously worked in the Scottish Office.

  

Year (at 31 Dec)
Number of Staff


1999
3,761


2000
3,424


2001
3,136


2002
3,053


2003
2,965


2004
2,892

Scottish Executive Staff

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its employees in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004 previously worked for another government body or agency outwith Scotland.

Mr Tom McCabe: This information is not collected centrally. The cost of checking manually all individual staff records would be disproportionate.

Sewel Motions

Scott Barrie (Dunfermline West) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12513 by Ms Margaret Curran on 23 November 2004, what progress has been made in relation to the bills for which it was anticipated that Sewel motions would be lodged in the Parliament

Ms Margaret Curran: I announced at the time of the Queen’s Speech that, subject to the Parliament’s consent through a Sewel motion, it was anticipated that ten bills could offer opportunities for making useful provision on matters within the legislative competence of the Parliament and on matters relating to the functions of the Scottish ministers. Subsequently, Malcolm Chisholm wrote to the Equal Opportunities Committee to advise that opportunities had also been identified in the Equality Bill. The position reached in relation to these 11 bills is as follows:

  Animal Welfare Bill was not introduced prior to the dissolution of the Westminster Parliament.

  Constitutional Reform Bill received Royal Assent on 24 March and includes the provisions for which the Parliament gave consent on 19 January.

  Disability Discrimination Bill received Royal Assent on 7 April and includes the provisions for which the Parliament gave consent on 24 February.

  Equality Bill fell with the dissolution of the Westminster Parliament.

  European Union Bill fell with the dissolution of the Westminster Parliament.

  Gambling Bill received Royal Assent on 7 April and includes the provisions for which the Parliament gave consent on 12 January.

  Inquiries Bill received Royal Assent on 7 April and includes the provisions for which the Parliament gave consent on 3 February.

  International Organisations Bill received Royal Assent on 7 April and includes the provisions for which the Parliament gave consent on 23 February.

  National Lottery Bill fell with the dissolution of the Westminster Parliament.

  Railways Bill received Royal Assent on 7 April and includes the provisions for which the Parliament gave consent on 26 January.

  Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill received Royal Assent on 7 April and includes the provisions for which the Parliament gave consent on 2 February.

  Acts of Parliament are available on the website of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office at:

  www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts2005.htm.

Transport

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many green transport plans are in place in the Strathclyde Passenger Transport area.

Nicol Stephen: This information is not collected centrally. However, a study commissioned by the Scottish Executive is currently being undertaken to provide a clearer picture of green travel plan activity in Scotland. The findings of the study are expected to be received shortly.

Water Industry

Frances Curran (West of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive, following the European Union’s establishment of a strategy for sustainable development in May 2001, what measures it has put in place to integrate water distribution and treatment policies with its health and education policies.

Lewis Macdonald: In February this year I set out the Executive’s sustainable objectives for the water industry in Scotland towards achieving the maximum affordable improvement in public health and environmental protection. We are now examining Scottish Water’s business plan aimed at delivering these objectives for 2006-10. Public health is paramount and education plays a vital part in putting across the message. Scottish Water and its predecessor authorities have actively pursued measures aimed at bringing awareness of best practice to the public. Scottish Water’s website education pages offer easily accessible, and engaging, interactive modules for pupils with teacher support material, and these, together with a series of campaigns such as the "Water for Life Roadshow" demonstrate our determination to pursue an integrated approach to sustainability. Scottish Water’s website can be accessed at http://www.scottishwater.co.uk/education .